Observations, reflections and thinking out loud on the way up the mountain and back down again.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Congressman Goode’s “macaca moment”

Virgil Goode served almost a quarter of a century in the Virginia Senate and as a member of the majority party was considered one of the least effective Senators of either party. Goode was then elected to the United States Congress in 1996 as a Democrat and switched to the Republican Party in 2002. His decade long career in the U.S. House of Representatives was notable only when in 2005 with his association with the defense contractor MZM that was linked to the bribery scandal of Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham. A Martinsville employee of MZM was convicted of making illegal contributions to Goode. Goode, rather than return the tainted money, used it to buy good will in his district by donating it to local charities.

Congressman Goode’s otherwise unremarkable career has now reached a new low. His office mistakenly sent a letter to the wrong constituent who promptly turned it over to a Charlottesville newspaper. It seems Mr. Goode does not like Muslims and is particularly offended that a member of that faith has been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Thank you for your recent communication. When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran. We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country. I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.

The Ten Commandments and “In God We Trust” are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Koran. My response was clear, “As long as I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, The Koran is not going to be on the wall of my office.” Thank you again for your email and thoughts.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

As a congressman sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States, I offer for his learnng curve the following from the sixth ammendmant to that document:

"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."